It wasn’t poor form or faulty mechanics that doomed Alas Pilipinas Men at the service line against Indonesia — at least not according to head coach Angiolino Frigoni.
For the Italian tactician, the Filipinos’ costly struggles from the line boiled down to one thing: confidence.
“It’s mostly confidence,” said Frigoni after the loss. “We have this problem with the serve — we’re talking to the players, and they have to get back their confidence.”
The Philippines’ usually reliable service game — one that played a key role in their historic run at the FIVB Volleyball Men’s World Championship months ago — was nowhere to be found, as a string of errors disrupted their rhythm throughout the match.
Those miscues proved decisive, handing Indonesia a 25–17, 27–25, 26–24 victory to close the pool stage and deny Alas the top seed in Group B of the 33rd Southeast Asian Games in Bangkok, Thailand.
Frigoni said the contest could have gone either way, but service errors at crucial moments in the tightly-contested second and third sets ultimately tipped the balance in Indonesia’s favor.
Still, with a semifinal berth already secured, the outspoken head coach stressed that the result should not linger on the team as they shift their focus to what lies ahead.
(C) POC Media
“This game can’t count for us — almost nothing. I mean, almost nothing by the score. We have to play the semifinal. It doesn’t matter if it’s Vietnam or Thailand, we have to play a semifinal. This is the most important thing,” Frigoni said.
If there was a silver lining, Frigoni pointed to the team’s resilience, noting that despite the errors, Alas stayed competitive and pushed Indonesia to the limit in the final two sets.
“But I am happy because we can get back our fight. We were back, we were in front, we were back, but we continued to play,” said Frigoni.
“For that, I am happy. I am not happy for the result, but okay, we will see what happens during the semifinal. I have a lot of confidence in these players, so they can do it.”
Setter Owa Retamar echoed his coach’s sentiments, saying the team must draw positives from the match while addressing their struggles at the service line moving forward.
“Nakita po namin na pagdating sa efficiency ng attack, halos parehas lang kami. ‘Yung transition medyo nakakalamang pa kami, kailangan lang talaga namin paganahin ‘yung seve namin kasi sobrang daming errors sa serve,” said Retamar.
Alas Pilipinas will aim to return to the podium when they face either Thailand or Vietnam in the semifinal on Thursday.
#WATCH: LAGI KAMING NEGATIVE SA SERVICE
Owa Retamar bares that Alas Men will work on a lot of things heading into the #SEAGames2025 semis 🏐 🇵🇭#ReadMore 👉 https://t.co/G12hHDAZfC
📹 @_joaquiflores /Tiebreaker Times pic.twitter.com/pgvuvPrCls
— Tiebreaker Times (@tiebreakertimes) December 16, 2025
